Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

It was a great Friday yesterday. Nothing was urgent at work.  I didn’t screw up anything. LOL.  I made new friend, my cat is recovering, … a lot of things to celebrate.  I stopped by Trader Joe’s and I came across some interesting food.  They have frozen artichokes.  Artichokes are one of those weird looking things that don’t look too edible in my opinion.  It looks like a hybrid between a flower and a veggie.  It shapes like a flower, but green in color!  Very bizarre and intimidating.  A few years ago, my sister bought one artichoke and she wanted to experiment cooking it.  Artichokes are not Chinese vegetables.  We both had no clue.  We could have searched the web to find instructions but we didn’t.  Someone told her to steam it.  She peeled off the rough edges, then trimmed off the tips of each leave.  After steaming it, that thing looked worse. The green color turned brownish.  It was totally not appealing at all. But we had to eat our consequence, literally!  We each peeled off a leave.  I put it in my mouth.  The leave had so much unchewable fiber.  I just kind of sucked the juice a little bit, and discarded it.  It didn’t have much taste either.  I had a few leaves.  She had a few leaves. We tried this experiment, and it sucked.  We threw out the rest.  Guess what?  The next day her Brazilian friend told her that we threw out the most edible part called Artichoke Heart!!  WHAT???  I felt so stupid.  LOL… Now that I found out Trader Joe’s have this, I couldn’t help putting a bag in my basket.  I was debating if I should make it taste more like Chinese or not.  Then I remember I had seen some pasta dishes have artichokes in it. Bingo!  Italian!  Here comes my new experiment: Artichokes hearts with pasta sauce.  It was very yummy. It made a great side dish. 

Frozen artichoke hearts

Add artichoke, garlic and cooking wine

Add pasta sauce to the artichokes

Stir fried Artichoke Hearts

Ingredients:

• Artichoke hearts, 1 bag
• Garlic, 1 clove (you can use more if you prefer)
• Pasta sauce, 4 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 Tbsp (I’m sure you can use any white wine)
• Salt, a dash

 Steps:

1. Finely chop garlic.  Put it aside.
2. In a frying pan, spray cooking oil.  Use medium heat.  Put artichokes in the pan.  Let it cook for 2 mins.  Stir occasionally.  No need to defrost the artichokes ahead of time.
3. Add garlic to the pan and cooking wine.  Stir fry it for couple of minutes until the artichokes look totally defrosted.
4. Add pasta sauce.  Mix it well.  Let it cook for another 3 or 4 minutes until the sauce thickens and sticks to the artichokes.  Taste it. You can add more pasta sauce according to your liking.  Add a pinch of salt if needed. 

I feel a little bit better today that my cat survives his surgery. I hope he stays strong and will recover soon. I was in a much happier mood to try something new knowing that he is getting a bit better.  I searched on google for scallion pancake recipes. I made this once when I was in a cookery class in high school.  I remember this is one of those things that require a lot of work, and take a lot of skills too.  What was I thinking?  Why would I want to do all these work just for a piece of scallion pancake?  I don’t know.  Once in a while, I do weird things that I can’t explain myself.  Or may be I just needed something to take my mind off worrying about my cat.  I followed Ming Tsai’s recipe except it was too late when I realized I put in cold water instead of hot water.  I thought it can’t be that bad, it was just a small screw up.  Oh well… other than that, it was messy to make it too.  Plus, I wasn’t skillful enough.  It turned out more like a scallion nann bread than a thin scallion pancake.  LOL. Ya, I screwed up sometimes but it’s ok.  I’ll eat my consequence literally hahahha….I should have flatten it out more to make it thinner.  It is not a complete failure, but I certainly need more practice and need to follow the instruction 100% next time.

Roll the dough out, add scallion

Roll it in a long swiss roll, then curl it like a spiral

Flatten it out to make a 5 or 6 inches pancake

Pan fry the scallion pancakes

Scallion Pancakes

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour, 2 cups
• HOT water, 1 cup
• Sesame oil, 1 Tbsp
• Scallion, 5 or 6 stalks
• Salt, a dash

Dipping sauce:

• Soy sauce, ¼ cup
• Chinese vinegar, ¼ cup
• Ginger, minced, 1 tsp
• Red pepper flakes, 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp

Steps:

1. Mix the dipping sauce in a small bowl.  Put it aside.
2. Add a tablespoon of sesame oil in a bowl.  Put it aside.
3. Cut scallions into small dices.  Add a pinch of salt.  Put it aside.
4. Sieve flour in a large bowl.  Pour a little bit HOT water at a time to the flour and mix it with a spoon.  Continue to add water until the flour becomes a ball of dough.  You may not need the whole cup of water.
5. Cover the dough with a piece of damp cloth and let it rest for 30 mins.
6. Cut dough into 4 pieces. 
7. Roll a piece of dough into a flat, thin pancake.  Brush some sesame oil on the pancake.  Add about a tablespoonful of scallion to the pancake, spread it out evenly.
8. Then roll the pancake starting from one end of the dough to form like a swiss roll.  Then curl the roll to form like a spiral.  Then flatten it out with a rolling pin to form a 5 or 6 inches pancake.
9. Use a non-stick frying pan. Spray some oil in it.  Use medium high heat.  Cook the pancake for about 2 minutes on one side.  Add a tablespoon of water to the pan. Then cover it for a minute. This will create some steam and help to cook the dough.  Flip the pancake over, and let it cook for another two or 3 minutes until it is golden brown or look crispy on the outside.  Serve it hot with the dipping sauce.

It was good that I bought a bunch of stuff from a Chinese grocery store last week.  I got trapped at home for days because of the snow.  I had some leftover Chinese Lo Shui Chicken I made the other day.  So I just made a Stir-Fried Snow Pea Tips, a veggie dish, and that was easy enough to fix my dinner tonight.  I don’t really like snow peas, but I like snow pea tips.  Snow pea tips have the same kind of subtle sweatness like snow peas, but they are leafy.  I didn’t remember mom had ever made snow pea tips when I was a kid.  It could be the reason that snow pea tip is expensive.  I got a bag of snow pea tips slightly more than a pound and it costs like $6 from a Chinese grocery store.  It’s not cheap compare to other Chinese veggie.  So you can imagine it’s gonna cost you double the price in a restaurant for a dish of snow pea tips.  Besides the price, I don’t like the fact that most Chinese restaurant add too much oil in cooking the dish.  Ya, I’m bit cautious on the amount of oil used these days.  I really have to lose weight. 

Put garlic and ginger in the pan first Snow pea tips

Snow pea tips

 Ingredients (Serves 2):

Steps:

1. Make sure you wash the snow pea tips.  You can use a big pot of water.  Soak the snow pea tips in it for a minute. Then disgard the water.  Repeat for one more time.  Drain well.
2. Finely chopped the garlic.
3. Spray oil to the frying pan. Use high heat.  Add ginger slices, garlic, and a pinch of salt.  Count 30 seconds.
4. Add snow pea tips.  Keep stiring.
5. Add Chinese cooking wine, and oyster sauce.  Mix it well for couple of minutes. 

I loved broccoli when I was a kid.  Broccoli was more expensive compare to other veggies.  Maybe that’s the reason I like it, I liked anything that is expensive. LOL.  I seldom order broccoli at a Chinese restaurant.  They usually under cook it, and make it too hard.  The cafeteria at work would over cook it, which is also yucky.   Ya, I know, I told you I’m picky.  Alright, here is an easy recipe to cook Broccoli chinese style.

Broccoli with Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:

• Broccoli crowns, 2
• Garlic, 2 clove
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Water, 3 Tbsp
• Salt, a pinch

Steps:

1. Finely chop garlic.  Put it aside.
2. Wash and cut broccoli into florets.  Put it aside.
3. In a pan, add 1 tsp cooking oil or you can use spray oil.  Add a pinch of salt.  Use high heat.
4. Add chopped garlic to the pan.  Stir fry it for 10 seconds.
5. Add broccoli to the pan.  Stir fry it for a minute.
6. Add cooking wine to to the pan.  Stir fry it for another minute.
7. Add 3 tablespoon of water.  Stir fy it occasionally.  Cook for a few minutes until the water dries up.
8. Add a teaspoon of oyster sauce.  Mix it well.  Cook it for 1 minute.  DONE.

Like most people, I may not be willing to try new stuff or create a new dish when I am busy.   It would be too much trouble when the time is tight.  Couple of years ago, I decided to learn a new dish whenever I have a break.  I got a couple of days off around Thanksgiving and I decided to learn a few new dishes.  I made butternut squash and apple pie   Both kind of semi-failed.  LOL. The apple pie turned out to be too sour. It looked good, but not too edible. The butternut squash was edible but a bit chunky!  I asked around.  My coworker told me that I can steam it instead of bake.  So I tried the second time, and it was a success.  I should really make this dish more often because butternut squash contains tons of Vitamin A which is really good for vision.  My vision is definitely getting worse as I use my computer all day long.  Hey, I have no choice, that is my job.  Anyway, I like to make butternut squash as a side dish for meatloaf because the cooking time of these two dishes are pretty much the same.  I made these two again tonight. It was yummy in my tummy

Steaming Butternut Squash

Super Yummy Butternut Squash

Ingredients (3-4 servings):

•  Butternut squash, 1 medium/small
• Honey, 1 Tbsp
• sugar, 1 tsp
• Nutmeg, a dash
• Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp
• Salt, a dash (optional)
• Butter, 1/2 tsp (optional)

Steps:

1. Cut the butternut squash in halves.
2. Remove the seeds.
3. Prepare a steamer. Add enough water to the pot (at least couple of inches high for water level) because we will steam the butternut squash for 45 minutes.
4. Add the butternut squash to the steamer.  Use medium high heat.  Cover it with a lid and steam it for 45 minutes.  Check occasionally to see if you have enough water in the pot.  Add more water if needed.  DO NOT burn the pot.  I made this mistake before!
5. Remove the butternut squash from the pot when it is done.  Be careful, it is super hot!
6. Use a spoon, scoop off the meat and place it in a big bowl.  Discard the skin.
7. Add the following to the squash: honey, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt (optional) and butter (optional). Mix it well.  Since it is steamed, it may have a little bit of water in the bowl after mixing it, you can use a spoon to scoop off excess water.

Optional step: The texture so far should be very soft.  If you like it to be more dense, you can put it in a 375F oven for 25 minutes or so.  I did not add this extra step tonight, see the picture.  It turned out pretty good as is.